Cuz I Said Sew chronicles the adventures of a seamstress and her software engineer alter ego. Join them as they create spooky goth blouses, fun vintage-inspired dresses, and silly costumes.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Jareth III: The Jarthening, Featuring Toby

I had originally written this post in November, with the exception of adding the pictures, intending it to go up immediately. And then I was going to post it some time in December. And then I was going to post it last week for David Bowie's birthday. And with his recent death, I decided that now was the time.

The Boyfriend and I went to Muppet-themed party in November. When the party was announced, I was in the middle of frantically finishing the dirndl. He asked what sort of costumes we should wear, and I gave him a dirty look. Since I already had the Jareth costume in the closet, I told him we were doing Jareth and Toby and I wasn't going to be making two new costumes on top of everything else. The Alamo Drafthouse was showing the movie last winter, so I had thrown together a hat for him then (which I had mentioned but never did a post about). This time around, he asked for pajamas too. In a fit of madness, I agreed.

At first, we were going to emulate the movie costume: one-piece footie pajamas with a boat-ish neck with snaps. I pointed out that would make bathroom breaks a bit difficult, so we changed it a zip-up front, maybe with a drop seat just to be ridiculous. I ordered the fabric with that in mind.

...And then The Boyfriend decided he wanted a two-piece, which uses more fabric. I managed to get it all in, but it was tight.

The pattern I used was Butterick 5572, which I picked out of a number of possible candidates because it had all the adult sizes in the same envelope. The Boyfriend is very tall, but slightly built, and I'm not very experienced in sewing for him, so I wasn't sure what size he would be. We also only seen each other on weekends, so getting measurements easily wasn't going to happen. And, just like me, we carry our height in our limbs, which means sleeves and legs need to be lengthened. We ended up deciding on an adult medium and added two inches to the sleeves. For the legs, I just cut them the extra-large length and that was perfect.

This pattern is size for knits, which are super-duper fun to sew. This isn't a difficult pattern, but I did have some tension issues because the fabric I used wasn't as heavy as I would have liked. Surprising, considering it was a Riley Blake (and not too cheap either).

So when it came down to it, I churned this out in about five days, finished seams, pockets, at all. The Boyfriend said they're comfy enough to use as, well, pajamas.

As for my costume, back when I made this, I was still married to the old stick in the mud. I had intended to pack the crotch, because, well, it is a pretty essential part of the costume. Not for work, of course, but for the party at my house. The ex was very upset with that idea and damn near flipped out. he never really explained why, so I still don't know to this day why he was so upset. All he said was that it would make people uncomfortable. Butthead.

Anyway, the party goers were the type to be amused by such things, so I decided to stuff. I was going to use socks, but then I remembered I had this little item in my drawer. (Ironically, given to me by my ex-husband.) It's soap, which he bought for me as a gag gift when I saw an ad and found it amusing, but never used it as I'm more of the shower gel type. I shoved it down my pants and swaggered around. After a few hours, I was tired of adjusting, so I hung it around my neck. Which actually worked out pretty well with the costume.

The death of a celebrity never really seems real, because they never seem like real people. David Bowie, in particular, seemed so far beyond common experience that it was a real shock to me. To his family and friends, I extend my deepest condolences, and hope he knew in the end how much his art touch other people.